Sexy is alive, well and trolling the Balmain runway. Backstage before the show, Olivier Rousteing spoke about his generation of women taking cues from pop icons — Rihanna and Beyoncé of today and “Erotica”-era Madonna. In fact, it was a photo of Rihanna wearing a transparent top at his after party last season that inspired his spring show. “That’s what my collection is all about,” Rousteing said. “There is nothing wrong in saying that sexy today is modern and exploring the sexiness….I think that, for my generation, there is a lot of sexiness. I love the fact that sexiness is a power today. For me, sexiness is not only about a shape. It’s about see-through.”
No kidding. Rousteing worked grids of crystals, sequins and leather around transparency both hard (plastic) and soft (sheer fabrics). He showed see-through palazzo pants over briefs, bandeau tops with stretch dresses descended from Azzedine by way of Léger but with cutouts. It was all bold and graphic — borders, grids and blocks of black, white, red, blue, yellow — and very Eighties-verging-on-Nineties power woman. It was also extremely well executed. Whatever Rousteing can conjure, the Balmain studio can realize.
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What it wasn’t: young. Yes, one could envision Rihanna or Beyoncé knocking the lights out when making an entrance in one of these numbers. But Rihanna and Beyoncé are not a market. They’re two supernova pop stars whose sartorial audacity is part of their power to fascinate. Young non-supernova pop stars who could get away with these clothes — who might wear them with a wink, a nod and a pair of cute briefs under a multibright grid skirt ringing a Mondrian bell — can’t afford them. As for more adult types, at some point, the siren bell tolls even for those in possession of the requisite body and bank account.